“Coach is up my ass about my grades again.” I shrugged. “It’s buck up or get benched, and we all know you’re fucked without me.”

“Back to the Bailey thing,” he said emphatically, ignoring my jab and blatant attempt to change the subject. “You’ve seen her a lot lately. Taking this toying with Morrison thing pretty far, huh?”

“Nah, I like spending time with her.”

He pointed at me with the neck of his beer bottle. “Because you like her.”

Beside him, Shiv widened her eyes and gave a little shake of her head as if to say, “I didn’t tell.” I believed her. Unfortunately, Dallas was good at reading me. Plus, hanging around a girl this long without banging was basically a dead giveaway. The only other girl I was friends with was Shiv.

Besides, let’s be real—not even I believed my intentions with Bailey were platonic. But was that what Bailey wanted?

“Maybe.”

“Don’t even try to act cool. We already know, dumbass,” Dallas said. “But I wanted to make sure you did. You’re not always the most self-aware.”

Dammit.

Okay, whatever. I could own it.

“Fine,” I said. “I like her.”

“I like her too. Can we keep her?” Shiv gave me a puppy dog face.

“I have no idea,” I said honestly. With how often we had been talking lately, it was hard to imagine my life without Bailey in it. But I’d known her all of a month, and I wasn’t entirely sure where we were headed. For all I knew, she could get back with Morrison tomorrow and never speak to me again.

“She does seem cool,” Dallas agreed.

“She is.”

He smirked. “Which means you have no business with her.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, man.” I flipped him off before continuing upstairs to my room.

“Love you too,” he called.

When I got into bed later, it still smelled faintly like Bailey—something sweet, like her perfume, mixed with something else that I was pretty sure was just her. And hockey help me, I liked it.

I was so screwed.

* * *

Tuesday evening’s practice rolled around, and Coach Miller bag skated us for the first half as punishment for playing so poorly against New England U. He was sneaky that way. He hadn’t done it the day after the game or the day after that, so we thought we were in the clear. But midweek?

Surprise, motherfuckers.

Now everything hurt and I was dying. To make matters worse, I was dumb enough to carpool with Dallas and Ty, which meant I got dragged to O’Connor’s after practice. I mean, the pub part was fine. It was the crowd that frequented the pub that I was ambivalent about. O’Connor’s was puck bunny and former-hookup central.